Surviving Capitalism (Not) : As Economy Tanks, "New Normal" Police State Takes Shape

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, August 15, 2011

As Economy Tanks, "New Normal" Police State Takes Shape

Click here to access article by Tom Burghardt from Antifascist Calling.

This is quite a lengthy article in which he provides numerous links to information to support his thesis: a police state is taking shape and the ruling class wants you to think of it as a normal state of affairs.

Here in the Northwest where I live, there have been numerous incidents of conflicts between border patrol agents and local citizens and migrant workers. This morning I've come across a new report from a Canadian source which reports on a US border patrol officer's attempt to act as a whistle-blower on our government's wasteful and needless hiring of so many border patrol agents for this area. It seems that the latter have nothing to do but harass working people.

However, from the point of view of the political operatives of the ruling class, I don't believe that these officers are "needless". I think that all US police and "security" agencies have been beefed up to establish the police state that Burghardt writes about in order to prepare for civil unrest from its own citizens.